Mandi Dabwali fire: DAV Public School to pay compensation

New Delhi: The managing committee of Mandi Dabwali-based DAV Public School will have to pay its 55 percent share of Rs.46 crore compensation to the victims of the 1995 fire tragedy, in which about 450 people, the majority of them children, were killed and 160 were injured, the Supreme Court ruled Wednesday. An apex court bench of Justice B.S. Chauhan and Justice K. Gopala Gowda dismissed an appeal by the schools` managing committee, thus clearing the decks for the payment of compensation to the victims` kim. The managing committee of DAV Public School had challenged a 2009 Punjab and Haryana High Court order enhancing the compensation to Rs.34 crore along with six percent interest.

Initially, the Justice T.P. Garg commission that enquired into the tragedy had awarded Rs.18 crore compensation to the victims` kin. The fire tragedy struck at a community hall in Haryana`s Dabwali town, where the local DAV Public School was holding its annual prize distribution function. A synthetic tent caught fire inside the building after an electric short-circuit. The fire spread quickly and hundreds of people were trapped inside that caused a stampede. As many as 446 people, including 230 children, perished in the tragedy. IANS